Joystiqhttp://www.joystiq.com
Joystiqhttp://www.blogsmithmedia.com/http://www.joystiq.com/media/feedlogo.gifJoystiqhttp://www.joystiq.com
en-usCopyright 2015 AOL, Inc. The contents of this feed are available for non-commercial use only.Blogsmith http://www.blogsmith.com/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/14/medal-of-honor-insists-on-ps3-firmware-3-42-blocks-psjailbreak/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/14/medal-of-honor-insists-on-ps3-firmware-3-42-blocks-psjailbreak/http://www.joystiq.com/2010/10/14/medal-of-honor-insists-on-ps3-firmware-3-42-blocks-psjailbreak/#commentsFiled under: Weird But True, Opinions, New In Pop Culture

Sony's ongoing battle with PSJailbreak seems to have reached the software side, as DigitalFoundry reports that Medal of Honor requires at least PlayStation 3 firmware 3.42 in order to run. DF notes that copies of the Medal of Honor have made it onto the net but "the game is completely unplayable with the hack as is." It seems that 3.42 includes a new decryption key, which is required to run Medal of Honor, while the firmware that PSJailbreak is based on "simply can't read the code." Presumably, this protection will be added to other future releases as well.

The article adds that it's possible that existing hacks could be altered to accommodate the change, though it remains to be seen if that will happen and, if so, how long it will take the hacking community to adapt.

Now that we've determined that the PSJailbreak dongle is real ... the question of its authenticity has abruptly been made moot. The Australian Federal Court has temporarily enjoined retailers from selling or distributing the devices. The court also ordered that a number of PSJailbreaks are to be "released to [Sony] for such analysis, including destructive analysis, as the Applicants think fit, upon the payment to the applicable respondent of its retail price for each such PSJailbreak Device."

If we're reading this correctly, that means that OzModchips and the other named retailers are legally forbidden from selling PSJailbreaks outside of Sony, and legally forced to sell PSJailbreaks to Sony. In any case, once Sony's had a chance to figure out exactly how this thing works, it basically won't matter if the injunction is lifted later, as the PSJailbreak will be rendered useless by a firmware update.

When we first wrote about the PSJailbreak tool - the latest in a series of purported hacks intended to circumvent the PlayStation 3's robust security precautions - we suggested that it might be a hoax. Notably, the screens shown to illustrate the tool at work were straight from a debug PlayStation 3; the same kind of PS3 that's designed to run un-signed code off of things like hard drives and the like. It turns out we were partially correct. The always excellent Digital Foundry has weighed in on the topic and the takeaway is simple: "the PlayStation 3's much vaunted security has finally been completely and unequivocally compromised."

And how is it compromised? DF writes that the presence of the debug options "suggests that elements of the bespoke system updates used on the debug PS3s are being injected into the memory of the retail unit." That coupled with the USB stick, which DF posits was likely reverse-engineered from the same "USB-based tools Sony uses to test and recover PS3s with corrupt firmware."

Since its release, the PS3 has put up a strong wall against hackers. The piracy problems that have plagued other systems -- including Sony's own PSP -- just haven't been an issue. Now a group purports to have designed a USB plug-and-play device that defeats Sony's copy protection.

The PSJailbreak device is intended not only to allow retail PS3 games (and not Blu-ray movies, DVD movies, or backward-compatible games) to be played from a hard drive, but can also block Sony's mandatory (and frequent) firmware updates, effectively protecting itself against obsolescence. For players with an interest in opening up their consoles for homebrew development, and not necessarily swashbuckling, it also enables the use of homebrew games and applications. (Seriously, don't be a pirate.)

At least, that's according to PSX-Scene and OzModchips.com, the latter of which posted a video of the technology in action (seen after the break). The technology's effectiveness hasn't been definitively proven and Sony has yet to provide comment. Perhaps that comment will come in the form of a new PS3 firmware update?

Update: The OzModchips video appears to use a debug PS3 system, which has the capability to run unsigned code (including code from a USB drive) and load games from the hard drive without the use of any USB dongle. This doesn't mean that the claims of PSJailbreak's effectiveness are untrue, but it certainly calls them into question. Why use a debug system to prove functionality that already exists in a debug system?